With high integration of LSIs, a circuit line width required for a semiconductor device has been made to be very small year by year. In order to form a desired circuit pattern in a semiconductor device, a method is used in which by using a reduction projection type exposure apparatus, a high-accuracy original pattern (a mask, or in particular, one used by a stepper or a scanner is also referred to as reticle) formed on a quartz is reduced and transferred onto a wafer. The high-accuracy original pattern is drawn by an electron beam drawing apparatus, that is, an electron beam lithography technique is used.
In the electron beam drawing apparatus, drawing is performed by deflecting an electron beam with a deflector. A DAC (digital/analog converter) amplifier is used for the deflection of the electron beam. Examples of the role of such beam deflection with the DAC amplifier include control of the shape or size of a beam shot, control of the position of the shot, and blanking of the beam. If a settling time that is set for the DAC amplifier is short, an error occurs in an amount of movement due to deflection, so that a drawn position of the pattern shifts from a design position. On the other hand, if the settling time is too long, a throughput deteriorates. Thus, the settling time is set to be as short as possible such that a shift amount of the drawn position falls within an allowable range.
Hitherto, analog wave adjustment by replacing a resistor circuit is performed such that voltage fluctuation of the DAC amplifier is settled in a short time. However, the analog wave adjustment depends on a result of adjustment of the DAC amplifier alone based on an individual difference of the resistor circuit to be replaced, and it is difficult to shorten a settling time obtained from a result of actually drawing a pattern. For example, even if the resistor circuit is replaced such that rising of the voltage of the DAC amplifier is made earlier, a shift amount of the drawn position is varied due to this, so that a settable settling time may not be shortened. As described above, it is difficult to shorten the settling time by adjusting hardware of the DAC amplifier.